In Frame, In Flux
Collaborators: Thomas Melkonian
Site: Redhook, Brooklyn, NY
ARC409 Integrated Design Studio
Spring 2025
Instructor: Eduardo Teran
The building is organized around a primary large-scale grid structure, with a secondary steel framework infilling between the primary bays. At the building’s center, a large atrium anchors the public program, serving as a gallery and memorial space dedicated to Red Hook’s industrial heritage. The atrium houses community archives, local history, and cultural records that document the neighborhood’s evolution over time. Offices and supporting program wrap the atrium, sustaining the building across a range of uses throughout the day.
The grain terminal is reactivated as a direct extension of the data center, with the existing silos repurposed to house the server infrastructure. The thermal output generated by the servers is captured and fed into the new building’s mechanical systems, where it is redistributed through the HVAC infrastructure to condition the adjacent spaces. Rather than treating waste heat as a byproduct to be expelled, the design integrates it as a primary energy source, reducing the building’s overall mechanical load and tying the two structures together as a single environmental system.
The project treats preservation as an infrastructural act. The terminal was built to store goods against time; here, it stores the cultural and archival memory of the community that grew up around it, while continuing to serve a functional role in the life of the building.
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